PATCHMAN mARCO (NL)
I am Marco alias Patchman “Headbangers”
or Spandex, haha. I am the main editor and founder of Headbangers Zine, Gigs, Records and For The Passion Not The Fashion, the YouTube Channel.
I am into Hard & Heavy Music since the mid-80s and worked for several Zines, webzines and bands in the past. I also tried to play music myself but I failed haha! Back in the day I worked as a teacher but now I am completely focused and dedicated to the music scene with scouting young talent, discovering old and lost forgotten acts for my recordlabel Headbangers Records. I also write articles for my E-zine, do interviews-reviews and reports and promotion videos for my YouTube Channel. From time to time, I also co-organize / promote concerts and festivals, tour with bands and work at record fairs and run my mailorder.
LEADER OF THE PACK
Partners
Our crew includes a big bunch of volunteers in all ages and genders, in all ranges of society and from different backgrounds, but it also includes several people in the Autism spectrum.
Marco (alias Patchman) van Empel
Stichting / Foundation Iron Force
TAMME OOSTERHOF (NL)
Happy to join forces with the music president of Friesland, the north of the Netherlands. Tamme is an old school Metal-Punk-Rock veteran in many ways, running his own label ‘Big Bad Wolf Records’ and store in the city of Leeuwarden. Tamme is a really great and loyal partner to work with. He has many connections and passion for the music industry.
Tamme is also connected to the For The Passion Not The Fashion, the YouTube Channel.
Matt Verschoor (NL)
Audio editor and compiler.
Matt is an old Heavy Metal maniac who started back in the 70's, playing in bands (Tempter, Ear Danger and others), managing bands (Vulture (NL)). These days he runs a small studio in his house. He also is the main man behind Hurricane Holland, a company that produces CD's, Vinyl's and Tapes, based in France. Matt is there to help me with all the technical stuff, especially around Headbangers Label. I'm glad to have a veteran with such great knowledge in my team!
Kees van Rein (B).
Kees, also known as El Condor, is a metalhead and a sound engineer, founding father of El Condor Music Production Studio. He lives in the Belgian Ardennes and likes to promote and record musicians and bands that startup... or that just want to enjoy recordings in a great metal atmosphere. Kees is remastering some of the old and dusty 80s metal recordings. Passion for live and studio recordings, mixing and mastering... be my guest..
He is also organizing and promoting concerts and festivals in his area.
Marc Alias DJ Hard ‘N’ Heavy (NL)
Marc is (Marco’s) best friend since he have met him in highschool back in 1994. Marc is also his 2nd hand in most of the activities, especially because he runs our webstore very decently. Marc is never very visible and never ask for any attention or whatever, But he is always there to give us support and helps us a lot. For example he supports us a lot with the social media part of our activities. Marc is a really great guy and very good friend and one of the coolest DJ’s at the Tilburg Metal-Rockbar Little Devil in The Netherlands.
Gerben “Herbie Der Herbmeister” Heijkant (NL)
My name is Gerben “Herbie Der Herbmeister” Heijkant. I was born in Dongen (11-10-1989), but I am living in Tilburg now.
My hobbies are listening and collecting music. Working with computers. Watching comedy series. And chilling / having a good time with my friends, and I like going to concerts and festivals (of course).
I am keeping several websites up-to-date for Headbangers Records and Big Bad Wolf Records / For The Passion Not The Fashion.
- discogs.com
- metal-archives.com
- 45cat.com
- Bandcamp.com
- YouTube.com (Mainly the Full Album/EP/Single videos and the Playlists-section)
- Headbangerszineandgigs.nl (Label-Releases Section in the webshop and Partners section on the website)
Also I'm keeping track of what Catalog Number a new release by Headbangers Records and/or Big Bad Wolf Records should get, and some more info about new (upcoming) releases, and also of our older releases. (I suppose you could call it "archiving information / data").
Currently we are also digitalizing all previous releases by Headbangers Records and/or Big Bad Wolf Records (for our own archives). So that if we might lose the last few copies of those previous releases (or in case they get damaged, or something like that), at least we still have a digital copy of the music.
Appie Thrasher (NL)
Happy that my good old friend Appie joined the team of editors / journalists and maybe he is going to do even more. Appie is an old school Metalhead in many ways. He played bass and was singing for the 90’s Death Thrash Metal band “Domestic Violence”. Also, he is running his own festival “Music From Hell”.
He is tour manager of the English 80’s Thrash Metal band “Onslaught” and has many connections and passion for the heavy music industry. A great maniac to have in our crew!
Linda Lush (NL)
Linda is a Dutch adult entertainer & video performer. Her main taste is based on Screamo, Deathcore, Metalcore, Hardcore and Nu Metal, (yes thats 90's, so old school today haha) . Linda studied music management and booked some bands back in the day. Also her boyfriend Pasha is involved in the music business and owns his own agency: Sleep Is Wrong Productions but also performs as a DJ by names such as: Pussyfoot and Roger Ramket and is vocalist in bands like: SynerG Onefix, I Are Minor en Arcadya Lake. I am really happy to have Linda in the team, she is the right person to give the more modern bands a spot as well.
Linda already did many interviews so far, so please check out our Channel for content.
Scott Buijs (NL)
End-editor Headbangerszine 6 till 10. Scott was a student in the school were Marco was working in the past for years. Marco and Scott became friends later on, because they shared the same passion METAL! Scott became end-editor, also because of his English roots. I am happy to have Scott in my team!
Nowadays Scott edits some of the interview videos for the YouTube Channel: For The Passion Not The Fashion. He also makes the promo videos for new releases by Headbangers Records and/or Big Bad Wolf Records.
Sjouke Bakker (NL)
Hello, my name is Sjouke Bakker. I started listening to heavy music back in ’84. I started with Venom (At War With Satan) and shortly after that I discovered thrash bands like Exodus and Slayer. Nowadays I’m mostly into thrash and hardcore. I am the webmaster for M.O.D. in Europe (milanomosh.com). Music is my main hobby, both listening and playing. I’ve played bassguitar since I was 18 in several (cover)bands. In 2017 I became the bassplayer of the resurrected Mandator. My other hobby is designing artwork. I designed lots of flyers and posters for Dilana and also did some shirts. For M.O.D. I created artwork for their last 2 releases: ‘Red, White and Screwed’ (frontcover cd) and ‘Busted, Broke & American’ (all art and lay-out for CD and LP) and for the 2017 re-release of ‘U.S.A. for M.O.D.’ (LP and CD). Recently I created all merch and the backdrop for M.O.D.’s European Tour. My favorite metal album of all times:SLAYER - Reign In Blood!
Maurice Schreiber (Ger)
After two years of absence, our Classic Rock, US Metal, AOR and Melodic Rock editor Maurice Schreiber is back in our team of editors and YouTube journalists again. The team is really happy the problems between us both are solved and this German Italian headbanger is back on track again!
METAL WIM VAN GRUNSVEN (NL)
Wim Is an on-hold editor in our team. Wim’s passion for Hard and Heavy started way back in the good old seventies with bands like AC/DC & Van Halen. From that moment it was confirmed that he was a Hardrocker! Wim is still a lover of old fashioned Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Thrash, Industrial and even new stuff, like Mastodon. Wim is/was a longtime writer for magazines and webzines as Fanfare, Mindview, Headache, Up, Rock Tribune and Mario's Metal Mania, so he was even active for some bigger zines! I am really happy to have an old veteran like Wim in my team. Wim really saw all Hard Rock and Metal styles come and go. So it’s great to have an older guy like Wim in our team!
David Portnow (USA)
Proud to join forces with David Portnow, one of the main guys behind Pig Records. An American Metal-Rap and Punk label, based in Seattle, WA State. David and us going to trade licences and we are very happy to join forces with this American label/YouTube Channel. You Rock! Also cheers to the rest of the crew. It’s really great to work with passionate people like us!
Check their website: https://pig-records.rocks
Odin “Metal” Alders (NL)
This young Dutch Metalhead will deliver an article for us, from time to time. Still he is no regular part of our team, he is just a young metalhead I like to give a platform from time to time. The youth is the future for Metal and we support this!
Odin is also the drummer of one of the youngest Metal bands in The Netherlands, named Fading Echo. A Metal band with influences of bands like: Alestorm, Slipknot, Nightwish, Slayer all among others.. Fading Echo also includes Bart Van Lenten on bass, the kid who designed some stuff for the Handykep MCD and did an interview with drummer Larry Howe (Vicious Rumors) for our YouTube Channel.
Sandi Mujanović (NL/YUG)
Sandi has been active in the Metal underground since 2004. Starting at 15 years old with his first label/distro Final Punishment Records releasing killer bands like Olof Wikstrand’s (famous for being the frontman of Enforcer) first Thrash bands Leprosy/Caustic Strike and besides that more bands like discovering the Norwegian Deathhammer.
In 2008 FPR dissolved and San came back in 2013 with his new label Inverted Inhumation Records that discovered bands like the Dutch Villainy (which later got released by Hammerheart and Listenable). In 2019 he started the label Vulcan Tyrant Records, in 2020 the labels Take This Torch Records and MCDT Company and in 2021 he started the label The Tower Of Power. MCDT Company is the Motherlabel of them all.
Besides that Sandi also plays in the bands Vulcan Tyrant and The Nefarious Integration. He also has been part of the band Gewoon Fucking Raggen. Besides that Sandi has several Electronic-styled side projects.
Also Sandi has designed many layouts for releases by his own labels as well as for other labels throughout the years, and done some drawings for bands.
After more than 18 years in the Metal/Punk underground still going strong!